Poses: a direct criticism of the world of glamor and fashion

This was a kind of living art performance done by Yolanda Domínguez, a Spanish artist. I found it to be interesting and relevant to the class, especially in terms of framing and representation. In the context of fashion magazines these poses seem to be normalized and acceptable, but in everyday life they generate a different response.

“Poses” is a direct criticism of the absurd and artificial world of glamor and of fashion that magazines present. Specifically, the highly-distorted image of women that they transmit through models that do not represent real women and that avoid all those who are not within their restricted parameters.

These images are virtually the only feminine reference in the mass media and they have a great influence in both men and women when building our roles in terms of behavior and ways of thinking.

Using these impossible stances of the fashion publishing houses as a symbol of how grotesque and unreal this industry is, a group of real women transfer these poses to daily scenes: the queue of a museum, the supermarket or the bus stop, sparking off the reaction of the spectators (on the other hand, regular consumers of these images).

The aim: to make it clear how ridiculous, and at times harmful, it can be to follow these models that the world of glamour impose on us.”

I want to point out the the women in this video are all of a particular size. They aren’t the height or body type you would expect to find in a fashion magazine and they certainly don’t reflect the women in the picture in dress or size. If the women better resembled the girls in the magazine in body type and were also hyper-stylized would on lookers view these women differently?

Personally, I think I would understand that what I’m supposed to be looking at then would be “art.” Which is a direct reflection of my upbringing and my ideologies on art and fashion.

That’s a good point. I think it again plays into framing and context. By shooting the video like this she probably meant to emphasize that women don’t usually look or act like those models in real life. Maybe the artist could reshoot the video to have the women dressed up and in full makeup. She could also compare reactions to them posing and reactions to actual professional models posing in the streets to emphasize other factors that allow these poses to be normalized.